Spring Creek Mine is located in southeast Montana near the town of Decker, in the northwest section of the Powder River Basin. The mine was acquired by Rio Tinto Energy America in 1993 and previously owned by NERCO Mining Company, a mining and natural resource company of PacifiCorp. The mine is now owned and operated by Cloud Peak Energy.

Spring Creek mines the Anderson-Dietz seam in four pits. The site is 6,700 acres and the average thickness of the seam is 80 feet. The typical average quality of the coal is 9,350 Btu subbituminous thermal coal.

Spring Creek Mine utilizes a highly efficient combination of dragline open-pit operations with truck-shovel assist to produce significant volumes of coal each year.  In 2008, Spring Creek mined and shipped more than 18 million tons of coal.

Spring Creek Mine is permitted for 24 million tons of coal a year. Coal mined from Spring Creek is sold to electric power generation and heating utilities, industrials, schools and hospitals in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New Hampshire and various Canadian provinces. At year-end 2008, Spring Creek Mine employed 223 people.

Environmental Awards

Safety Awards